They award regional awards for post season play as well. These are given out after the championship game I believe.

Last night was the second match that these two have played this month, they were two of the better ones that I have witnessed this season. Unlike the first meeting, which was 1-1 at the end of the first minute of play, this one had a more typical start.

 

I believe that St Henry did a better job of controlling the run of play for about the first 10 minutes of the match. The majority of play was on the Cooper defensive side of the field and they had a hard time completely clearing the ball and maintaining any sort of possession. The Cru had a couple early chances to get on the board first but did not seem to get a good foot on the ball and it made for some fairly routine saves for Linder.

 

About 10 minutes into the match, Cooper was able to find Snow at midfield, he was able to bring the ball in and turn and face the defense. He was able to beat the 3 defenders around him by taking them wide of the goal and then placing the ball inside the opposite post.

 

Over the next couple of minutes Cooper was finally able to keep the ball on the other side of the field and put some pressure on the St Henry defense. Hollifield heaved a throw into the Cooper box and it was directed out away from goal by the defense. Snow was able to run the ball down about 30 yards away from goal and turned and hit it all in one motion, it looked like a side volley to me that started with his back to goal. The ball barely made it over the goalie and it hit the underside of the crossbar and bounced in the goal.

 

During the next 20 minutes, Cooper played with much more confidence and composure. I think the defense played well as a unit last night, Ross and Hollifield did a nice job of falling back to help when needed and also did their fair share of supporting the attack. There were several times that Ross was actually able to maintain some decent possession on his own, just by controlling the ball on his foot, this allowed the defense to regroup on a handful of occasions.

 

St Henry was able to get back into the match with about 5 minutes left in the first half. Neltner was able to attack the Cooper defense and was able to slot a perfect ball through the back line to Sanders. Taking the ball a little wide with his first touch, Sanders was able to gather it in and place a shot in the back corner. Cooper was able to hold on and maintained their 2-1 lead going into the half.

 

The second half started a lot like the first, St Henry controlled the ball and had Cooper on their heels.... it was a lot of bending... but they did not break. I felt that the defense had a lot of trouble containing Sanders and Neltner when they got into the box on several occasions, but to Cooper's credit, they were just not able to put it in the net. To put it in perspective, I would say that possession was around 75/25 the first 20 minutes of the second half. IMO, this 20 minutes of play went a long way in deciding the match, the defense was under constant pressure but was able to pull together as a unit and survived one attack after another. :thumb:

 

With about 19 minutes left in the match, Snow was able to gather in a throw in from Hollifield about 25 yards from goal. He took the ball away from goal before turning on the defense, when he turned he had defenders on him and ended up going to the ground, he was able to maintain possession while getting back to his feet. He split a few defenders before getting off a shot right outside the 18 that found its way just inside the right post.

 

At this point in the match Cooper started to gain a little more possession but the Cru still continued to push the issue and got their fair share of chances. The defense of Cooper continued to battle and did a fantastic job of doing their part to keep momentum on the Jags side. A few of their chances were turned away because Cornforth was able to match the speed of their forwards and kept them from getting open looks.

 

With just under 10 minutes left in the match, Cooper was awarded a free kick from about 40-45 yards out. Adams launched it into the box, about 10 yards out from goal. A St Henry defender, and their goalie, could not keep Snow from flicking the ball backwards and into the net to make it 4-1.

 

St Henry continued to fight and push the issue for the remainder of the match and was able to add a second goal, I think by Neltner, to finish off the scoring at 4-2.

 

For those of you who chose to attend other matches last night... you missed a good one in Erlanger. Like the first meeting, this was a very clean and well played contest by both teams. I only remember a couple times that I think the ref could have gone to his whistle but nothing major, seemed like this was a pretty easy match to call and I give credit to both schools for this.

 

I want to wish all of the St Henry players (and families) well as they move forward, please know that there is a ton of respect in Union for "THE CRU".

I believe the state voting is after the state tournament. I was told by a coach on the state comittee that it was pretty much already determined Nemo was Miss Ky soccer before even walking into the room!! It seemed to me like Nemo last year played it safe and didn't put forth the kind of effort that we were used to seeing the prior years. This was probably because she didn't want to get injured since she had already signed with UK but that's how I saw it.

 

I am not exactly sure when All-State selections are made but I think it is done before the State Tournament.

 

I have a list of last seasons selections and I received it before the State Tournament had concluded.

Looking back the voting must have been after the first round of state games. The paper reported them on Nov 5th which was semi final weekend I believe. So, the voting does not take place after the tournament but during. Maybe the commitee should rethink this? Makes perfect sense to me

I was told by a coach that all state nominations are due Friday October 23.

@Yellow Card, Now that's how to report a match! :thumb: